market plate
westville-inspired veggie meal!
When I lived in New York, one of my favorite affordable lunches or dinners out was at Westville — a straightforward veggie-driven restaurant with several locations all over the city. I think the only thing I’ve ever ordered there is the Lunch Market Plate, where for $13, you get to choose three veggies from the big chalkboard of daily veggie specials.
Even when I’m across the country from a Westville, I find myself creating my own “market plate” moment by ordering two or three veggie sides at a restaurant for dinner instead of a main. They don’t have to have that typical entrée cohesion (Asian Brussels sprouts + Mediterranean chickpeas + pesto mashed potatoes?! Sure!)… the more flavor the better.
I honestly don’t know what took me so long to do a market plate-inspired What To Cook recipe, but today’s the day! Here’s our menu!
PS, you could also absolutely just choose one of these veggies and serve it with baked fish or pan-seared steak or a rotisserie chicken. Do your thing! But I 10/10 recommend serving these three veggie dishes together as a market plate dinner!
When I’m focused on healthy eating, I like to make big batches of roasted vegetables for the week. I’ve been doing it a lot lately, which is what inspired this week’s recipe.
I love making roasted cauliflower and chickpeas — both of which offer a good amount of protein — to make grain bowls with or just to snack on. The crunchy chickpeas get a little soft in the fridge, but I don’t mind it at all. If you want to recrisp them after they’ve been in the fridge, just reheat in a 400°F oven for 10 minutes.
Beets are another fave, and today’s preparation method doesn’t even require turning on the oven. They’ll stay good all week — just don’t add the nuts until you’re ready to eat as they’d get soft in the fridge after about 12 hours.
Batch-roasting baked sweet potatoes is always a great idea! Again, just don’t add the nuts — or the chive yogurt (store that separately in an airtight container) — until you’re ready to eat.
You’re gonna spend a full hour cooking this week, but you’ll end up with a veggie feast that can feed up to four people! If you’re only cooking for one or two people, I highly recommend cooking the whole shebang and saving the leftovers for lunches or another dinner this week.
Not into one of today’s star veggies? Swap in one of these veggie-side recipes instead to create your own market plate!
sesame-ginger cucumber pepper avocado salad (you can use store-bought ginger dressing — I love Makoto — instead of making it from scratch)
grilled summer squash and zucchini with charred scallion and cotija salsa
it’s not a veggie but mac and cheese would never be a bad addition to a market plate…
This market plate meal contains three separate recipes. I’ve written them all with the same roast temp (when applicable — the beets don’t actually roast, although I do provide instructions for how to roast them if you don’t buy pre-cooked) and similar timing to make it easy to get them all on the table at the same time! Here’s the plan for how we will tackle cooking all three simultaneously:
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Line two rimmed baking sheets (one large, one small if you have options, or two large works!) with parchment paper.
Roast the cauliflower + chickpeas and sweet potatoes at the same time for 30 minutes. Ideally your sheet pans will be side by side on a rack in the center of the oven while roasting. If you can’t fit them side by side, put the sweet potatoes on the bottom rack and the cauliflower/chickpeas on the top rack!
While roasting, make the beet dish completely. Also chop the dill for the cauliflower and make the chive yogurt and Brown Butter Crunch.
When your oven timer goes off, stir the cauliflower and chickpeas and return that sheet pan to the oven for another 15 minutes (don’t touch the potatoes — keep ‘em in there).
After that 15 minutes, take out the cauliflower and chickpeas. Check the sweet potatoes for doneness by pushing your finger down on their skin. If the potato feels very squishy, it’s done. If it’s still rather firm, keep roasting for another 15 minutes.
Finish everything (lemon and dill for the cauliflower, yogurts and nuts on the sweet potatoes!) and serve!
Sometimes ovens can run a little hotter or colder than usual. If you go to stir your cauliflower and chickpeas after 30 minutes and they look perfectly roasted, by all means, go ahead and pull them out! On the flip side, if they aren’t golden brown and beautiful after 45 minutes, give them a few minutes more. Always trust your eyes and gut when you’re cooking — do not let your roasting veggies burn just to follow a recipe to a T!
If you suspect that your oven’s temp might be a little off — maybe you’re consistently needing to cook meat longer than a recipe says to, or your roasted veggies are always getting charred — you can buy an in-oven thermometer to check, then adjust the cooking temp accordingly. My sister texted me this week: “I finally bought that thermometer you always talk about and my oven was off by ONE HUNDRED DEGREES.”
Serves 4
Cook time: 1 hour
Tools:
1 large sheet pan (like these half sheet pans), 1 small sheet pan (or 2 large)
Medium skillet
lemon-dill cauliflower and chickpeas
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